• Autobiography,  Health commentary

    Is a fixed retirement age a sensible option?

    Much has been written about the age at which employees should retire and whether with increasing longevity, the retirement age should increase commensurately. In countries with ageing populations resulting in many living over two decades after retirement, an increasing burden on pension funds has increased the urgency of this debate. A survey from the United States indicated that while there are many factors supporting an increase in the age at which citizens become eligible for Social Security payments that a proposal of this nature is unpopular with voters. It must be stressed however that retirement is a luxury reserved for those with permanent employment and employment is a luxury which…

  • Autobiography,  Health commentary

    Reflections on life in my seventies …

    With the onset of winter in South Africa, the time of the “sere and yellow leaf”, I am in a reflective mood as my 74th birthday looms later in the year. I retired from a full-time career as a specialist paediatrician and then a senior government bureaucrat in 2015 having headed a university department of paediatrics and managed two provincial departments of heath in South Africa. Subsequently I have remained busy as a consultant and on the boards of various entities. 2023 marks 50 years since I qualified as a doctor in 1973 and the world around me has changed dramatically since that milestone and as befits that anniversary a…